Birth Plans

Birth is a natural bodily function, just like sneezing.  Only rarely can sneezing cause health complications and the same is true for labor and childbirth.  Women's bodies were made to perform this function with little or no interference from outsiders.  The problem is that many of us are so disconnected from our continuum that we cannot fathom that something which will be difficult, likely painful and damn hard work, can be natural and healthy.  We associate pain with disease, something to fixed, managed and medicated away, but the true is that most healthy women can labor and give birth with virtually no intervention.

A birth plan is a guide to what you would prefer in the event of a normal, complication free birth.  It allows physicians and hospital or birth center staff to be able to clearly see what your wishes are in advance and may aid in keeping you from having to continually re-explain your wishes across shift changes.

  

By putting your preferences on paper in advance you open a dialogue with your birth attendant to discuss various procedures and how you and your partner feel about them.  By getting your birth attendant to inital your birth plan and send a copy along with your chart to the hospital, you make the hospital staff aware that you have discussed these issues with your attendant and he has agreed to try to provide that birth experience for you.

I would recommend discussing your birth plan with you physician around the seventh month, or possibly before.  By not waiting too late to address your preferences you allow yourself time to work out any kinks.  Your attendant may be able to direct you to the appropriate person at the hospital or birth center to discuss specific labor or postpartum preferences you have which may be opposed to routine hospital policy.  Not all policy's are written in stone and starting discussion early can give you bargaining time to achieve what you want.  There may be special forms you will need for certain procedural preferences, for instance, the hospital where we are giving birth this time requires that you have Complete Non-Separation forms signed by the pediatrician if you do not wish to have the baby taken routinely to the nursery for vitals and examination.  This is info you wouldn't want to discover the first time a nurse tried to take your baby to the nursery.

It is typically recommended that you make 4 copies of your birth plan.  One for your physician or birth attendant, one for the hospital, one for your labor coach or support person and one extra just in case.  Present your birth plan to your birth attendant and ask him to sign or initial it.  Have three copies of the signed plan and ask your attendant to send over a copy of the signed plan to the hospital or birth center when he sends a copy of your chart.  Pack two of the other plans in your overnight bag and place the last one in the car, just in case you forget your bag when you go to the hospital.

Below is a copy of our birth plan.  When beginning to write our plan I surfed sites where other people had posted their birth plans and got some ideas and verbiage from theirs.  I had no idea where to begin and this gave me a good starting place.